I. J. Leitch

The Origin And Speciation Of Orchids

This study reconstructs the phylogeny of orchids using genomic data and infers their geographic origin and speciation patterns, finding their origin in Laurasia and recent speciation in Central America.

Genome size is positively correlated with extinction risk in herbaceous angiosperms

The paper finds that larger genome sizes in herbaceous angiosperms are associated with higher extinction risk, independent of climate and endemism, and may serve as a proxy for resilience and vulnerability.

The global distribution of angiosperm genome size is shaped by climate

This study examines the global distribution of angiosperm genome sizes and finds that climate, rather than polyploidy or growth form, primarily shapes genome size variation.

The Ecology of Palm Genomes: Repeat-associated genome size expansion is constrained by aridity

This study shows that aridity influences repeat community composition in palm genomes, with wetter environments associated with larger genomes and specific repeat expansions.

The nature of intraspecific genome size variation in taxonomically complex eyebrights

This study examines genome size variation in eyebrights, finding significant intraspecific variation and contrasting patterns between diploid and tetraploid species.

A Comprehensive Phylogenomic Platform for Exploring the Angiosperm Tree of Life

This paper introduces a phylogenomic platform for angiosperms, providing a large dataset and open tool for exploring the flowering plant tree of life.

Archaeogenomics of a ~2,100-year-old Egyptian leaf provides a new timestamp on date palm domestication

The paper analyzes an ancient date palm leaf to determine the timing of gene flow from wild relatives to domesticated date palms, finding hybridization occurred at least 2,100 years ago.

Hundreds of nuclear and plastid loci yield insights into orchid relationships

This study uses nuclear and plastid gene data to analyze orchid phylogenetic relationships, finding incongruence between nuclear and plastid trees and higher informativeness in nuclear genes.

A Universal Probe Set for Targeted Sequencing of 353 Nuclear Genes from Any Flowering Plant Designed Using k-medoids Clustering

The paper designs a universal probe set for targeted sequencing of 353 nuclear genes across flowering plants using k-medoids clustering, achieving high sequence recovery across diverse angiosperm lineages.